Star Wars

On Sept 11, 2001, I was in Washington DC when the Pentagon was attacked, while in New York, the Twin Towers were destroyed. This May, I found myself again in Washington DC, watching the White House being demolished from within by its latest tenant, President Donald Trump.

“Seeing Progress, Though Still Not Enough” on Tax Justice

The time is now to work together to fight illicit financial flows, according to Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Guillaume Long. Ecuador, which has long advocated for tax justice, has shed light on the issue at the United Nations. As Chairman of the Group of 77, Long highlighted the need to end the financial secrecy of tax havens and to create an intergovernmental body to help regulate taxation and financial flows.

Change Maker: The Good Shepherd

Two months into her pregnancy, Farida Khatun suffered a fate all too familiar yet often glossed over; her husband, Atar Mia, left her and went off to marry another woman. Given this was sometime in the early 80s, Farida Khatun could have been forgiven for resigning to a future full of gloom. But like the rose that grows from concrete, Farida's resilience would spur her on to blossom to not only survive the odds stacked against her but resoundingly conquer them. And all that with a lamb purchased for Tk 80.

Developing Nations Call for Strengthening South-South Cooperation

The Group of 77 has reiterated the urgent need for strengthening South-South cooperation for the successful implementation of one of the UN’s key objectives targeted over the next 13 years: the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

G77 in Key Role Drafting Treaty on Marine Resources

The Group of 77 is taking an active role in the drafting of an international legally-binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ).

Developing Nations Seek Access to Science, Technology & Innovation

The Group of 77 has reiterated that science, technology and innovation (STI) should be three key elements in helping implement sustainable development and moving towards the acquisition of knowledge for much-needed innovation in developing countries.

Hungry Children Behind Bars

If you were in Metro Manila and went to visit a Bahay Pag-asa or “House of Hope” where children as young as seven are incarcerated along with youth up to 17 years of age, you will see that the majority of 12-year-olds look like 8-year-olds.

Social Ripples of Rape

When alleged rapist Shafat Ahmed and accomplice Shadman Sakif were arrested, and the former's father brought under investigation, I had decided not to write about the rape incident that took place in a hotel in Banani. The actual rapes have, sadly, been described to some detail – and no one, but the culprits, needs to relive the barbarity of it. But what, perhaps, needs recording are the social ripples generated by the episode.

Rights of Nature

Should a tree have the right to sue? This line of inquiry is met with an equal measure of incredulity and fascination. After all, to answer in the affirmative is to entertain the rather rib-tickling idea that a tree, much like a human being, is capable of being wronged and deserving of restitution. To answer in the negative is to reassert the status quo — that a tree is simply a tree, inanimate and insentient, incapable of any hurt, unqualified for any compensation.

Unlocking the Diaspora Development Potential

‘Diaspora is the biggest development community that exists in the world’, according to Pedro De Vasconcelos, manager of IFAD‘s Financial Facility for Remittances. However, its potential is still largely untapped.

New surgery, first time in UAE restores hearing to teen

Surgeons at Dubai Hospital have succeeded in implanting a bone conduction hearing aid for the first time in the UAE, enabling a 17-year-old Emirati born with a thinner-than-average skull and hearing loss in the right ear to fully regain her hearing, according to the hospital doctors.

Why Honesty Is Best Policy: It Feels Better

A new university research study has added a twist to the saying, “honesty is the best policy,” which has been immortalized by the Holy Bible, William Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin and countless mothers.

Who Defends the Rape Survivor?

We live in a country where women who are survivors of sexual violence not only have to go against the traditional grain of society but the justice and law enforcement systems as well. Our antiquated laws, medical procedures to prove rape, the cruel character shaming and the general social impunity granted to men makes one wonder how brave a woman has to be to even demand justice.

Rape and Ordinary Men

“You can’t clap with one hand,” one of the rapists in the notorious Delhi gang rape case had famously said after being convicted of rape and murder. This man, along with five others, had been found guilty of taking a young woman to the back of a Delhi bus one night in December 2012. The men raped the young woman inflicting injuries that were so terrible that the doctors, including those in Singapore, where she was sent for treatment, could not save her. A few weeks after the incident — after she had identified her assailants and given her statement — she succumbed to her injuries.

Playing Pandu with the Press

Overawed by the May Day public display of support for their political opponents and even for their partners in government and perhaps exhausted by their own efforts to convince the people that promises made two years ago have not been forgotten, our ruling elite seem to have forgotten one important event.